Friday, September 4, 2009

Got any refugees from their lastest BBQ disaster showing up this holiday weekend without your knowledge. Wondering how you're going to feed everybody in such a short time? Here's a great way to feed a bunch of unexpected guests or refugees from the nearest disaster.

Since I had some time off recently, I dropped in on my son-in-law, Steve the Chef, and on short notice he decided to quick cook a brisket. He planned to use me as a guinea pig for his taste test knowing I'll consume most any type of food cooked on a smoker barrel. Here's how he did it!

Keeping the basic preparartions the same, Steve the Chef rubbed down a 13 1/2 pound brisket and throwed it in his smoker barrel. The next thing he did was turn up the heat to 300 degrees. This is supposed to be the ideal temperature to cook a brisket and he decided to put it to the test. He needed to keep two air intakes open most of the time in order for the heat to stay around 300 degrees but it wasn't too difficult to maintain and didn't require any extra attention on his part. You won't save any charcoal though, as the higher temps take a little more charcoal. This is in spite of the shorter cooking times.

Putting the brisket on at 1 PM when I called started it off and it was pulled from the smoker barrel at 6:30 PM when I got there. I was already hungry and really couldn't wait much longer to eat. The results turned out great! Being the Official Brisket Taster is one of my more important titles that I readily subscribe to whenever the chance prevails.

The flat of the brisket came out really tender and juicy. A quick taste test on my part was all that was needed. The point was fully cooked and turned out great also but could've been a little more tender if given slightly more time but it tasted great also. Steve the Chef sliced it up and we ate it up. A portion of the point was thrown back in the smoker barrel to keep it warm and give it a little more cooking time.

The only thing that you could probably do to make a quick-cooked brisket any better would be to used a well-trimmed brisket to start, trim your brisket yourself to cut down on the thickness of the point or make sure RW isn't coming over to eat so there would be a little more time for cooking. Figure 30 minutes for each pound of brisket when fast cooking at the higher 300 degree temperatures instead of the usual 1 hour per pound for a slow cook. If you didn't invite RW there might even be a few left-overs for somebody else.

Steve the Chef is also going to be in a BBQ Cook-Off coming up soon in my area and we want to wish him luck!

The fast cook on the brisket went amazingly well but like you I prefer the slow cook. I'm going to be doing a little taste testing on some ribs and sausage prior to the big cook-off in a couple of weeks.

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An expedient oxygen absorber for a 5 gallon storage container can be made by placing a golf ball size piece of steel wool and a tablespoon of salt inside a paper napkin and placing it in the container. The salt will absorb the residual moisture and the steel wool will naturally absorb the oxygen.

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Make Your Own Electrolyte Beverage (Gatorade, Pedialyte, etc.)

To one quart of water add 1/2 teaspoon baking soda, 1 teaspoon of salt, and 8 teaspoons of granulated sugar. Thoroughly mix all ingredients together.

This will replace electrolytes lost by the body due to dehydration caused by diarrhea, vomiting, excessive sweating, etc. A package of Kool-Aid, Crystal Light, etc. may be added to enhance the flavor and color.

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